Evaluation of School Tour Performance

I know it wasn`t that good so I was thinking about the mistakes we made, why and where could we improve.

What styles we used for theatre of children?

• I think it was too much of naturalistic. We should have put more physical theatre in it to make it more alive as physical theatre adds some energy to the piece. 
• We used humour to make the piece more funny and adaptable to young audience as we not supposed to forget that the reason we were building this show is to perform it at secondary schools. 
• We have chosen to add miming into my and Carlos scene where I pretend to be shouting at Carlos but with no voice and a little bit exaggerated. 
• Accents. Matthew could do a very nice and funny Jamaican accent which suited perfectly for bus driver. 

Some people said that they were expecting Divina to sing and was actually waiting for it but somehow we didn`t actually plan that Divina is going to sing but that was a good hint where we could use it after Christmas.

Toya behind me and I during the technical rehearsal 

There were some sound and lighting mistakes which affected our performance. For example there was no knock on my and Carlos scene where I was playing his mother and he pretended to be my son who doesn`t want to do athletics any more he would rather become a mathematician. Also the spotlight went off just after Carlos paused me and he supposed to have his monologue so we panicked a bit on stage and quietly tried to think of change the text so he would have a chance to say his monologue.

I believe that we`ve been put into groups with people who has similar attitude. And our groups people attitude was poor punctuality and attendance. The consequences we got from it that we had enough time to rehearse but we did not use it properly. People (between them and I) thought that we still have enough time to get ready for it but the time flew so fast I did not realize the performance is already tomorrow which meant we not going to get good grades for it which was really disappointing. Some people were very pessimistic about it and said that we should not perform tomorrow as the piece we have wouldnt get us a distinction. I agree but why is that? I learnt that attendance and punctuality is very important as not being in at least in one class you miss the whole 2 hours of work. The whole 2 hours!! You can make so much in 2 hours... We nearly did our 10 minutes piece in 2 hours on the first days of rehearsals so what about the whole day of rehearsal which is 6 hours... So I got the point that the group is based on a team work and if the team work doesn`t work the results not going to be very impressive. Group number 1 and 3 grounded that point as nearly all of the members attended all classes. Also some people may say that I had to leave early due to work but the lesson starts at 2 so we had around 1 hour of rehearsing time but some of the people used to listen to music or dance which is one of the reasons we didn`t do well on the performance day.

I have never gotten anything lower that pass so I can`t imagine having big fat FAIL on the final paper. I always reach for the best results and now I know where my problem was. I believe this was a good lesson for me and other group members and I hope we can still improve on our performance after Christmas.

In addition, other group performances were really great. I really enjoyed watching them!!

Getting ready for school tours part 3

Toya and me on stage and Carlos
telling Jack all the cues

So as the performance getting closer we are all stressing out as we have only 10 minutes which is not enough, In my opinion, a good performance should be at least 25 minutes in order to develop a clear story line, reach the climax and make a conclusion. Our 10 minutes piece was just the beginning of a story so that meant the whole story should be around 30 minutes long plus the games so the workshop should be around 45 minutes long.

So the technical rehearsal couldn`t go very well as it was only me, Carlos and Toya. Carlos was giving cues to Jack so he knows where he should play sound effects or music. Toya and I were on stage giving Jack an opinion of how it supposed to look like but we couldnt do much as it was only two of us.

So the last day of rehearsal which was on Wednesday only Katy was missing. We tried to rehearse without her and everything was going pretty much well but then Divina mentioned something about new script Katy was writing and we should be using that one. I was a bit confused as this is the last day of our rehearsal time and we shouldnt be changing anything but other group members didnt want to rehearse with the old scripts so the lesson ended up being wasted. I think some of the people just didnt want to go for the ideas and that`s what was holding our group back. Also people should put their relationships outside of classroom and concentrate on work we have to do.


Because of Divina and Sam relationship we came up with idea of using Toya and Carlos as main character and have some flirting between them two. And it actually came out very nicely becaus ethe relationship between them two was really nice. It was like a pure, innocent, not brave first fondness of love.

Log Book for School Tours

In the last week, we have changed the topic of our performance. We kept the same title which is Two Ways One Destination but the main characters are not Katy and Sam any more. We struggled creating the story line and finally we ended up with me being the main character with a desire to be a mathematician, whilst my mum forces me to do sports. However, I wasn`t able to take the main characters role as my work could not promise to give me some time off work so it would be not enough time for rehearsing. I suggested that Carlos could take my part and Toya could play Katy`s part and thankfully all group agreed with that.

Our story is about two teenagers struggling with their own problems, and no one notices that. We came up with this idea because a lot of teenagers nowadays suffers from problems in family, bullying etc and any one even tries to understand them. Marko struggles at home as his mum forces him to do athletics, even though his dream is to earn money from profession that involves maths. Toya is an artist and her mum doesn`t take it seriously she hates the idea that her child wants to be a creative soul and forces her to clean the house everyday, and blaming her she doesn`t help her enough. 

Marko and Chyna meets up, and tries to solve the problem together. We thought if idea that there is no such thing as model student. Every one of us has different abilities and dreams that we should follow instead of listening what other people say.

As we getting closer to the performance day we all get frustrated and little bit nervous. We still haven`t finished the scripts, nevertheless we were working on the script writing in Sharon`s class on Tuesday morning. I think it was really good team work as all of us written the bit of scripts bearing our own ideas. I came up with idea that main Characters Toya (Chyna) and Carlos (Marko) meets up in the classroom and starts arguing over the maths as Chyna insists Marko wasn`t right when solving the maths task in a classroom before.  It ends up, that they become friends and fights against problem together. 

Sharon`s feedback was that we need to tidy up the scenes to make it clearer to understand what`s going on and pick up the cues. We talked about this and agreed that firstable we need to print off the scripts and then we can continue working on the next scenes. Also she mentioned that we have very slow energy, comparing to other groups. But that is because our scenes are quite messy and we werent sure what we were doing so it was more like improv of ideas we had. As a positive side, she said that split scene is very good, and the chosen style is strong. We use split scene in order to show the audience the similarity of two students who faces the same problems and that they are not the only ones. 

Public and Private Funding

What is public funding? 

Public funds is money devoted from the government for creative, voluntary, or community organizations that does not have enough money in order to proceed their project. The government itself received this money from taxes we pay every month including . For example, it is money received from everyone by one or another way. The main public body is Arts Council but it may be a lottery that holds an event in order to collect money for a new theatre performance.

What is private funding? 

Private funding is money received from rich people or companies that has no connection or support from the government. It might be a particular person who`s got a few companies and in return he wants his companies to be advertised on the leaflets or be mentioned at the beginning or in the end of performance.

Three companies who receive public funding

1. Almeida Theatre funded by Arts Council England
2. The National Theatre funded by Arts Council England
3. Little Angel Theatre funded by Arts Council England 

Three Companies/productions that receive private funding

1. Globe Theatre funded by Deutsche Bank 
2. Waterloo East Theatre funded by Donors
3. Royal Shakespeare Company funded by the Anson Charitable Trust 

Pros and Cons of public and private funding 

Both types of funding provides money for organizations to be able to afford what they want to do. 

Pros of public funding is :

They offer more money. 

In case the project is unsuccessful they are not going to ask pay back the money. That means if it fails it fails and the money is wasted. 

The money is much easier to get you just need to apply online and fill up the forms. 

They offer money from one performance to 5 years running shows.

Easy to find information about funds. Normally, they publish the information on the internet. 

Cons of public funding is:

Ask for a clear report where the money is used. They want to see all accounts where the money is gone. 

Usually it takes long hours of filling up the application forms and describing the project you want to get the money for. 

Sometimes they may easy reject the idea that is not stabilized properly and seems to be beneficial for community uses. 

In case of political changes the availability of public funding may change a lot. 

Pros of private funding is:

Don`t have so many papers to fill up. 

Mostly private funders want to support the bigger projects where they see the possibility to advertise themselves.

Sometimes they might support by providing particular assistance. For example, if Nutella company do not want to offer money they might offer  free snack instead to sell in a theatre. 

There are lots of private funders whereas public funders only a few so they receive less applications that means there is a higher chance to receive a support. 

Cons of public funding is: 

Offer smaller amounts of money comparing to amounts the government may offer. 

Might have a special requirements and needs. For example, a private funder might offer £15,000 but in return he wants his son to be in a show. 

Try to avoid private sponsors who`s got bad reputation such as Amazon, Starbucks, Coca-Cola. Let`s say Coca-Cola funds the performance and in return they want that the only drink to be sold in a venue is Coca-Cola. This may make the visitors not happy as some of them might want Fanta or Sprite. 

They keep the right to reject the applications without the actual explanation. 

Funding Royal Shakespeare Company / Theatre

Who are they funded by? 

Royal Shakespeare Company are funded by many public sponsors, trusts, councils and private funders that helps theatre to achieve their mission great art and culture for everyone.

Public Funding is also known as funding received by government. The main public body is Arts Council.

Recently Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) was funded £2.8 millions by Heritage Lottery Fund. This money was donated due to restoration of the lovely Grade II* listed Swan Wing and they are going to open up incomparable Collection and Archive that has been collected for over 130 years. They are giving an opportunity for people to see behind the scenes of world famous Globe Theatre. They are now trying really hard to open it up in 2016 in memory of Shakespeare`s death.

RSC has been getting funded by National Lottery that gave them a hand on several projects. The biggest funding National Lottery made was worth £58 million in order to redevelop the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon in 2004. It took almost four years of hard work refurbishing it but the results are amazing. Now this theatre can offer a brand-new, 1,000 seats auditorium, bigger space for drinks and eat and modern exhibition spaces. Furthermore, National Lottery was a main sponsor for The World Shakespeare Festival that was celebrated in London in 2012. Thanks to National Lottery, this festival was the biggest and greatest celebration of Shakespeare ever staged.

Another very strong source of funders are Arts Council England. Total investment received from Arts Council England is £10,845,430.

RSC are gratefully funded by US Advisory Council including Daniel and Melissa Berger, Victor and Tara Menezes, Parag and Usha Saxena.

Creative Learning partners are The Ohio State University and HM University.

Trusts and Foundations

Rich families that once had lots of money decided to establish their trust or foundation in order to maintain their memory and good heart. It gives a chance for people to donate money for trusts and foundations where later on this money are divided into theatres, clubs and companies related with theatre and arts that develops education and gives opportunity to learn skills.

They get funding by trusts and foundations including: The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Backstage Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS CHK Charities Limited The Clore Duffield Foundation The Constance Travis Charitable Trust DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund Drue Heinz Trust Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Gatsby Charitable Foundation The Grimmitt Trust h.Club Foundation.

Private Sponsorships or Donations

When private sponsors support the event, club or theatre usually you can see their logo which is a good opportunity for sponsor to be advertised and they might find a potential customer for the future.

They have a long list of private sponsors that decided to donate some money. Private Sponsorship are divided into companies and rich people. Rich people are divided into Gold and Silver patrons depending on the amount of money they have funded to RSC. Obviously, Gold Patrons are the ones who donated bigger amounts. Their names are as following: The Anson Charitable Trust Jane and Howard Epstein* Susan Hewitt Jeanie and Philip Holland Simon Keswick John Medveckis* Mr Stephen Oxley Patricia Rigby Jane Williams. Silver Patrons are the ones who were kind enough to help arts spread the world and gave some amount of money. Some of their names are: David and Elizabeth Acland Charles Alexander and Clare Mumby Sir Eric and Lady Anderson Margarita Maria Anthoine* Jeffrey and Mary Archer Richard Armitage Mr and Mrs Lawrence Banks Scott Barasch* Mrs Jacqui Beecroft Captain Peter Barnett and Mrs Sandra Billinge Matthew Bowcock Martin Bowley QC H & J Brave Dr and Mrs Douglas Bridgewater Sir Dominic Cadbury Roger and Lesley Cadbury The Cielinski Family Liz Crosoer Celia and Andrew Curran and many more.

Companies that funded RSC are corporate partners including SAMSUNG, Interbrand (Official Brand Partner) and BP Petrol. As well as corporate members including: Avon Boating Ltd Baker Tilly The Bell, Alderminster Berendsen Plc Birmingham Airport Bloomberg LP Bravissimo Bruntwood Fernox - Alent plc Foot Anstey LLP George Pragnell Honeywell Control Systems Limited Innotech Advisers Limited Lansons like minds Listers Group Lloyds Bank Urban&Civic Wright Hassall.

What kind of work do they show/do?

Royal Shakespeare Company stages performances of Shakespeare, his contemporaries and discovered new writers, making every play a memorable event for everyone.

They have trained generations of theatre makers and talented actors since they were founded in 1961 and they continue growing and expanding their talents in future.

They work starts at Stratford Upon Avon workshops and theatres and proceeds into performances seen by audience around the world through: touring and residencies, cinema broadcast, education programmes, online activity.

What facilities do they provide?

Royal Shakespeare Theatre provides many facilities for guests with access needs. These are as following:

• 12 wheelchair spaces in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre auditorium, comparing with only 4 in the old theatre. 
• Lift access to all floors and levels of Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Swan Theatre auditoria. 
• Lift access to 32m high Tower viewing platform. 
• Toilets on all floors of the building. 
• There is the accessible riverside walk and runs around the side of the theatre, rom Bancroft Gardens to Holy Trinity Church. 
• Loop systems for those who have hearing problems.
• Box office, cloakroom, stage doors, fire alarm, and shop counters. 
• Step free access. 
• Parking
• They offer captioned and audio described performances along with Touch Tour. 
• There are seats at front available at every performance for people who are partially sighted or hard of hearing. 
• Nursery. They offer a nursery facilities which is really amazing. It is located only a mile away from Stratford-upon-Thames city centre. The nursery cares for children from the local community and RSC workers. They provide excellent children caring since 1963. 
• Safeguarding. Offer safeguard to the children, young people and professionals working at RSC. It helps to maintain professionalism and high standards of practise. 
• Rehearsal space.  
• Workshops

Who uses them? 

They target is to make the performance memorable for all kind of audience. They offer cheaper tickets for students and children. There are accessible facilities for disabled people and people in need. For those adults who drove down Royal Shakespeare Theatre there is a possibility to leave their car in a parking slot. Plus no time restrictions that allows people to relax an enjoy their performance. Also the nursery is designed for small children from 0 to 5 years of age.

What services do they provide for the public/their target audience? 

They provide more services than you can think of. First to my notice came commercial hire which gives people an opportunity to hire a venue in an amazing Shakespeare`s home town in a beautiful countryside Stratford-upon-Thames, Warwickshire. They offer rooms for meeting and event, wedding, parties and community events. Their spaces can be hired for film or photography shoots, Arden Hotel and other recommended suppliers for flowers, food and drinks.

They not only hiring venues but costume hire is quite popular as well. They offer more than 30,000 costumes available to hire that was made special for Royal Shakespeare Company`s productions. In case people want to hire a costume but not sure about the size or look they are more than welcome pop in and try it on as RSC offers a holding service to ensure your selection is available, fitting rooms, fast, reliable and cost effective courier. They also offer a discount rate which is 50% off for a second week, and then 25% from weeks 3 to 12, and then 10% after that. So the prices can be accessible for public people and huge companies. It is open for everyone from amateurs to professionals.

What is the public benefit of these? 

The public benefit of this is that customers are welcome to look around and get inspired for their own productions. Costume and venue hire services offer quite relevant and affordable prices for schools, colleges and other organizations. In that case, young generations have a chance to be involved in a creative side of life and can develop their skills further more by being inspired by RSC. Moreover, it is very entertaining and fun.

RSC organized workshops, events and exhibitions are very informative for all ages people. Usually, the exhibitions are closely connected with the life of Shakespeare which is important to know if you live and walk on the land of legendary plays and poems.

They also offer spaces for hire which can be used for rehearsals, performances, workshops or meetings. Keep in mind, that one space can hold from 20 up to 100 people. RSC also offers a workshops for students and teachers to get involved with Shakespeare`s plays and life which is very informative. RSC let visitors feel like they would be real actors and directors.

Royal Shakespeare Company is also a registered charity that provides money to create performances / programmes and seek the widest audience in the world that is suitable for everyone.

Do you think the venue justifies its public subsidy?

I would say yes and no. At the moment there shows about King & Country season. Ticket prices : £55, £45, £35, £25, £10, plus premium seats also available. As my research shows the price for upcoming play Midsummers`s Night Dream which will be shown at Royal Shakespeare`s Theatre in London price starts from £10 per ticket with a restricted view and can be up to £55 for seats in stalls (section A). However, they offer a discount for elderly people who is 60 and over where price starts at £8 for a same seat with restricted view and may reach the price of £44 in stall section A. There is also a Family Rate (under 18s) that offer nearly half cheaper tickets. The price for the same seats starts at as less as £5 and raises up to £27.50. So those middle age people has to pay more and I would say not everyone can afford it. Theatre is a very important thing for people to stay creative in their mind. Even though they don`t understand how important this is, people should afford to go to a theatre at least once a month. Just try imagine people doing same routine day by day (sleep, work, eat, repeat) it would kill them. Theatre is a food for our brain and we need it as much as we need eggs, bread, milk, meat in order to stay alive. Of course, there are plenty of other theatres that offer cheaper theatre tickets but you cant compare the quality with the Royal Shakespeare`s Theatre. Nevertheless, I stand by their side as they do huge discounts for elderly and young people, that are obviously are not able to work in full force as most of young people are students and elderly people are not able to work many hours. In that case, money from the government are really helpful. It gives an opportunity to enjoy the life of theatre for everyone.

There a day time seats available for a fare of £10 stalls which has to be purchased on the same day as a performance and collected only from a box office. It is valid for all performances.

There is an offer for adult groups of ten and more people to get tickets for £35. Offer is valid only Monday to Thursday for the whole November and December excluding the week commencing 28 Dec 2015. This is a great way to celebrate a Christmas party with your colleagues.

RSC offers cheaper tickets for disabled visitors and their companion. The price for a ticket is £16 per person. However, this offer is only applicable for performances in Stratford-upon-Avon. For London performances you have to call Box Office and ask for further information.

 Probably everyone has heard of £5 theatre tickets at RSC. This concession if for young adults age 16-25. All you have to do is sign up for the RSC Key. By joining RSC Key you will be informed about upcoming performances and events near you. They offer £5 tickets for all their productions. Normally, there are 40 tickets per evening performance that has to be booked in advance and collected only from the box office. There are two ways to book this concession tickets either calling the Ticket Hotline or booking online and using a promotion code which is 1625. This is a good way for students, especially for those studying performing arts, to see and be up to date with most recent productions. Mostly, all students cannot afford going to watch West End shows but RSC productions are as good as West End shows.

Getting Ready for School Tours Part 2

So the lesson on Thursday was little bit tricky as it was only me and Carlos from the whole group. Divina and Sam arrived exactly the same time when we were about to go on and show what we did in the lesson. Carlos and I described the scenes, the beginning, middle and end as our performances involves all the people in our group so we couldn`t perform without them.

This lesson our task was to find out who`s got what kind of skills and we came up with a list of skills each person on our group has:

• Katy. Dance, act, sing, play a piano. 
• Carlos. Act, dance, speak Portuguese, very good comedian. 
• Divina. Sing, dance, act, intimate as she and Sam are going out in real life so maybe we can use it in our performance, also speak Portuguese. 
• Matthew. Act, he is good at physical theatre as well as lifts and weighting as he is very tall and strong. 
• Toya. Sing, act, African dance, speak Dutch.
• Sam. Act, dance, intimate with Divina. 
• Amber (me). Act, dance, karate (kick-boxing), speak Lithuanian. 

So that`s the main skills mentioned above that we may us in our performance.

Another task was to create at least one scene and time it. Carlos and I wrote down all movements and actions from the beginning to the end. The scene starts with to main characters on stage (split scene), and shows their morning. Everything is going in a fast mode just shows the basic of their lives. It repeats for 2 times and then it slows down to a normal tempo. Katy and Sam wakes up at the same time and then Sam freezes and Katy is getting ready for college, when leaves the house she freezes and then Sam starts getting ready. It is important to mention, that Katy is doing A-levels whilst Sam is taking BTEC. They both are going to separate colleges. One college stands for A-levels, this is the one where Katy, Toyo and Carlos are going and the college where everyone is taking BTEC, that is the one where Sam, Divina, and I are going. As Matthew was not in college for sometime we decided that the best role for him would be a teacher, just in case he will be not in the performance day. I also came up with an idea to make the performance more interesting to give each other a particular subject. Lets say Sam is doing BTEC drama, Divina singing and I sports, while Katy is taking A-levels in music and drama, Toya is taking dance and Carlos is learning languages. Basically, it just shows how Sam and Katy travels through different classes and how Sam is good at everything and Katy is failing. Our idea is to show that if you do A-levels you are not any better than those who are taking BTEC. During the performance we will show how they face and deal with difficulties in family, with friends etc. and how it affects main characters` lives. In the end they will apply for university and Sam gets in whilst Katy is really struggling getting in, so she might just drop out or not get into university due to huge pressure in life.

5 drama schools. Why? Where? When?

So as it is just time to start applying to chosen drama schools here is my 5 choices. I have chosen them as I believe education is very important but the quality of education is more important. Going to top, recognizable around the world drama school is very important as it means a lot on actor`s resume.


Here is a list of my chosen options for drama schools:

• Guildhall. That was the first of my choice because of legendary actors who went were came out very successful in their career path. For example, one of my favourite actors, Orlando Bloom, studied there for two years until he broke his arm and dropped out. However, the education he gained there helped him to accomplish his dream and become well known, talented actor. Also, 1 year ago, in the end of summer, I attended 1 week acting workshop there, where we had a chance to speak with acting tutors and experience everyday life in drama school. In the end we created a 5 minutes performance based on news from news paper about terror attacks in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, etc. I really enjoyed that week and made my decision back then that this is where I want to study. In addition, its just 15 minutes away from my house.
• RADA. Obviously, it`s understandable that everyone wan to get into RADA as it is considered one of the best drama schools in the whole world!!! As my research shows they prefer taking older actors` rather than freshers, graduates after college. They are looking for people who already carry an experience in professional acting. Rada is located in central London so it won`t take long hours of travelling as it is very exhausted. In addition, the successful graduates such as Anthony Hopkins, convinced me that this school provides very good and useful. 
• Drama Centre. First of all, they offered me a free audition in order to attending acting techniques workshop and I really appreciate that as the auditions for drama schools cost the fortune. Each audition for each drama school cost around £70. Also I like that they are open-minded for young talents different than RADA which is focusing on people with experience. However, one of my Lithuanian friend auditioned for Drama Centre and during the auditioned he was told because of his incapability to do an English accent he can`t get into the course because they want everyone to be equal. In that case, I started going to private accent classes once a week that actually improved on my understand it and speaking. 
• East 15. The location is not the best as it is located in zone 6 so it takes some time to get there from central London. Yet I like the course is based on Stanislavski`s technique. Also this school provides very good training for both theatre and film acting. Not mentioning, that it is marked as 5th of the best UK drama schools. 
• LAMDA. I have heard people talking about LAMDA since I moved in London. It is known as one of the best drama schools is the UK and many graduates won plenty of world famous awards which shows the positive achievements in show business. Studying acting and drama is fun and I really enjoy it that is the main reason why I have chosen this path. 
• Also as an extra option I have chosen National Youth Theatre as I was not sure if it counts as a professional training or not. I kept this theatre in mind when I met on the street one graduate, Ed Westwick, that has a pretty good acting on screen experience, and had a chat with him. He told me that he really enjoyed his years spend there and it really helped him. There are countless of world famous performers who attended courses at National Youth Theatre including Ed Sheeran, Orlando Bloom, Helen Mirren, Daniel Craig and many more. They inspired me bacause they are actually looking for young talents as they accept applicants only between the age of 14-25. 

Budget

Every show requires time and money to spend. For our assessment we have to do a careful research about the budget for two weeks performance `The Tempest`. That means we have to look up how much we will spend and earn and the profit or loss we get. As the show is going to happen in Westminster Kingsway College it won`t cost the fortune but let`s say how much we would realistic spend on a real two weeks show. So the final result is the most important either we get a profit or loss. In order to earn a profit we have calculate each thing very carefully and think of the best way to save money. However, many chances are that we can get a loss because it is going to be a premier and people still don`t know about it so probably it won`t be a ticket sell-out.

Here is a list, showing mostly possible costs:

Expenditure:

• Actors.  There are total 11 roles in The Tempest. According to sheet Sharon gave us the cost of 1 actor minimum weekly salary is £440. The tour is two weeks long so each actor will be paid £880. To sum up, the total amount spend on actors will be as much as £9,680.
• Director. In order to get the actors managed we will need to hire a director to help us out with building up and managing the show. The cost of director is £1,439 per week for a full length play. The amount we will pay the director for two weeks is £2,878
• Venue hire. Hiring a venue will cost a lot. The price for full name is £1,200 and half day is £750. Knowing that we will held two evening shows we will need to hire a venue for only a half day. For two evening show performances and a technical rehearsal we will spend £750 * 3 = £4,500 on a venue hire.
• Rehearsals space. In my opinion we have to use the time we have so I would have 6 hours rehearsal 4 days first week and 5 days second week. The rehearsals will run Monday to Friday as the performance is on Saturday evenings. Sunday is day off for everyone. The drama studio costs £87.50 p/h  so the price for a day costs £87.50 * 6 = £525. The amount we will spend first week for 4 days rehearsals is £2,100. The price for second week 5 days rehearsal cost £2,625. The total amount that will be spend on rehearsal spaces is £4,725.
• Technician. In order to have a smooth performance we will need a technician responsible for lighting, music and special effects. The price is £30/h. The show is 2 hours long. We will need a technician for both evening shows plus technical rehearsal. The amount we will pay him is £180.
• Costume. Let`s say we will need to hire a costume for each actor. If we will rent a costume from Angel Costume hire shop located in central London we will spend £80 per costume per week with a special offer that we have to rent 11 costumes. The price for week is £880 and for two weeks is £1,760.
• Props. Minimum prop spend is £250 plus £75 delivery plus £75 collection on Event Prop Hire. In order tu built the right atmosphere of The Tempest we will spend around £800 per week. It is based on a 3 days hire + VAT so we can also use it for technical rehearsal. The total amount for two weeks including delivery is £2,000. http://www.eventprophire.com/pricing
• The lighting is very important in order to see the performance and make it more interesting. Live Systems (livesystems.co.uk) provides lighting kit ( School Lighting Kit - comprising 8 500W Fresnel Lanterns, 4 500W Profile Spots, 4 stands, 4 T-bars, 2 Dimmer Packs, a Dual-Preset Control Desk, filter pack and all cabling. Designed to run off two 13amp sockets) - copied from the website.
  The price is £120 per week, so the total would be £240. 

There are all expenditures listed above excluding marketing. The total price for all of it is  £25,963 plus 10% contingency ( which is 2,596.5) so the total amount is £28,559.3 However to get the profit we would need to higher ticket prices but not too much so people can afford it and that is the only way we could get our money back spend on performance equipment. We could also sell drinks and snacks but it is not allowed in the venue. 

Sources of income:

• Tickets. The price is £7 per person per performance that will be charged on the door. There are total 180 seats in a theatre and 80 people are coming to watch our performance for first evening and show and 70 for second evening show which is total 150 people per both shows. In that case, the income will be £1,050 for tickets. 

Profit or Loss? 

Income - expenditure =profit/loss
£1,050 - £28,559.3 = -£27,509.3 that mean loss 

In order to receive a profit we should have charged more for tickets at least £15 also we should have spend some time and money on marketing and spread the word about this `new, exciting performance!` Also if we would have run the performance for at least 3 or 5 months we would be able to get a discount for lighting, costumes, props etc. 

However, knowing that we are students at Westminster Kingsway College we won`t need to pay for venue hire, rehearsal space, costumes, lights, technicians and props. The only expenses may be on actors and director (which is total of £12,558). However, if Rob would be our director and Level 3 first year or Level 2 students would be the actors we wouldn`t need to pay for anything as long as we are students here. So we would only earn a profit for tickets we sell on the door. 

Getting ready for School Tour

This Thursday the 5th was the first day when we were working in groups, getting ready for own own performance in secondary schools. I was in the same group with Katie, Divina, Toya, Carlos, Sam, Matthew. We are responsible for the whole performance, writing schools and asking if we could lead a small workshop including games and 20 mins performance. The performance theme is about `model student`. We thought a lot what could be a model student in nowadays and came up with an idea of comparing A-levels and BTEC student as most people think


that BTEC is nothing comparing to hard workers A-levels but it is not true. We ended up with this idea because secondary school students` will soon has to choose what to study and we want to give them an opinion on both fields. Katie have done A-levels so she will be the main character as an A-level student and Sam will represent BTEC student. What`s waiting for them next, after college? Is it possible that they both get into university? Do they have equal knowledge? We are trying to answer these question by further developing our performance and improvising.

To create a performance is quite a big responsibility so we allocated each other a section to be responsible for:

• Scripts. We decided that the performance will be about 20 mins long and the games will be for about extra 15-20 mins. So it is too much work for one person to write the whole book of scripts. We all agreed that we will come up with particular script section whilst improvising and then each one of us will write a section of scripts giving the performance different attitude as every person has its own writing style. 
• Costume and Sound. I will be responsible for organizing costumes and sound. 
• Administrator.  Carlos 

We have decided we will go to Toyo`s and Divina`s school as they went to the same school and Carlos school in Islington. Besides, we made an `event line` by then things has to be done. For example, by the next week, there has to be some framework of scripts and one devised scene. 

Bertolt Brecht and Mother Courage

Early life 

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was born in the very end of 19th century, 1989, in Augsburg, Germany, died 1956, just after the World War 2, and is known as a talented theatre practitioner, director and poet. He started to write when he was very young and the main subject he was writing about was political and social issues. His writing was affected by the terrible period of WW1 and WW2. Then, he belonged to anti-war group of people and he got expelled from school for writing anti-war poems, moreover when Nazis came to power in Germany he gave up on his native German citizenship and was not recognised as a citizen of any country. He had enough of serving as medical orderly in the WW1 and seeing the cruelty of the war and started his career in theatre back in Berlin.


Brecht couldn`t stay any longer in the country full of sorrows and moved to America, and after some time was announced as an American citizen. However, home will always stay home, in 1947, he returned to Europe and established  Berliner Ensemble. Theatre meant a lot to him. It was a place where he had an opportunity to express his political views and opinion about society at that time.

He died in 1956, at age 54. Interesting fact: he requested to be buried with a stiletto heel in his heart.

Theories and Epic Theatre

Inquisitive Brecht was interested in many different things. Mainly his beliefs was based on Karl Marx`s theories about socialism and Chinese theatre. Marx`s theories were all about social justice. Although he never joined the Party, he was not against the communism.  Literally, it was about who`s got the power and money,and who does not, and why is that happening. How does industrialisation affects people, their lives and jobs, and the way they label themselves who is who. Obviously, who`s got a higher position is better than the ones who does all the poor work. But better job does not make a better person. This is just all the consequences of the war. It is like a survival between animals. Stays alive only those who can adapt themselves in the environment. In that case, most of his poems and plays are called theatre of war.

Brecht was not afraid just go for it and fail. Basically his theories started from `this might
work this might not` but this is how you find what you are looking for by rejecting things and theories that wasn`t working for you. That`s how he designed his own theories and is known as one of the greatest practitioners ever.

Epic Theatre was founded by Brecht during the years when realism, naturalism and melodrama were global favoured theatre forms. Naturalism is all about convincing the audience to believe that what happens on stage is real. It is more like recreating a real life on stage referring to what was actually happening in real life during this time. Using realism and naturalism forms of theatre he engaged people and tried to send them a message. Brecht wanted the audience to forget, escape from their minds, just stop thinking for a moment. Basically, Bertolt Brecht didn`t want people to enjoy his theatre he wanted them to think about it and question them so they could start thinking about really important things, why is there a war, is it necessary, what people fight for, He wanted to open the spectators eyes and realize how cruel war actually is as some people seem not to understand that.

Brecht believed that each scene in a play has to have its story and even though it is the same play the scenes should be worked on separately as it was a different story in each scene. In that case, every scene becomes interesting itself and after watching couples of scenes the audience don`t know what to expect next. It also leads to alienation effect.

So how did he woo the audience to his side? Brecht used the alienation effects (Verfremdungseeffekt). The alienation effect was used to distract the audience to something new. To do something what spectators would not expect to happen. When the natural rhythm of the story is interrupted and it does not follow the regular criteria what people are willing to see or have been predicting what`s going to happen. In that case, it makes them start thinking and questioning. Make them use their brains. It is like ice bucket challenge. It wakes people up and spreads around. The idea of alienation effects was to remind the audience that they were in a theatre, watching a play, and that people on stage are actors, not real people, playing their characters, communicating ideas to us the audience. However, the effects typically include:

• In order to audience member to be aware of each other house lights were on during the plays.
• All actors performed in black instead of fancy costumes. 
• Very often scenes were sung. 
• Posters were used to display the information for the audience. 

According to Brecht actors should not approach their character psychologically and mentally. he did not require to play the character realistically, which is completely opposite to Stanislavski`s technique. Brecht techniques were unrealistic and not believable.

The following are his techniques for actors:

• Exchange roles with other actors. 
• Breaking the fourth wall. Perform directly to the audience. 
• Use mismatched emotions, for instance play sad in a comedy scene. 
• Robotic, dreamlike movements. 
• Speak as like quoting someone else rather than speaking yourself. 
• Not matching voice and movement. 
• Keep physically and emotionally detached from the other actors. 
• Gestus. Presentation of an emotion through gesture. 
• Didacticism. Teaching of a moral lesson

We should all thank him as he made a big revolutions in theatre and `turned it into a tool for looking at the big issues that affects us all.` He achieved what he wanted, he made it possible to happen and changed the history of theatre forever.

Mother Courage

The play Mother Courage and Her Children is a narrative story about how war destructed many families and changed people lives forever. The main character is Anna Fierling that was a real protagonist through a play, although everyone calls her `Mother Courage`. She is a brave and valiant woman, despite the fact she loves her children one by one. She plays a `tragic figure` in a play. That means she causes sad, pitiful feeling to the readers and audience through her suffering. She is a victim due to social state of affairs, faced the cruelty of war and lost the most important people in her life and according to the government it was her fault. The audience likes her because she tries to stay strong and shows her endurance through out the play. However `Mother Courage` has two sides positive and negative which is called `a heroic anti-hero`. In one part of the play she is even compared to a hyena the animal. Despite the death of her 3 children she stays around the same battle field. The audience should criticize her for not caring too much about her children but at the same time it makes them think why would she do that, if I was her what would I do, would I stay. And this is what Brecht wished to achieve in a theatre. People thinking about what`s going around and not just watching. Brecht tried to send a message to a people about what problems the war causes to people through Mother Courage`s character. The war harms not only beauty of the earth but also the beauty of human beings.

From left to right: Eilif, Kattrin, Mother Courage, Swiss Cheese

Mother Courage and Her Children known as theatre of war play and was performed in USA starring Meryl Streep, knowing as one of the best american actress and in London, National Theatre starring Fiona which showed a spectacular performance and left everyone speechless. Mother Courage has moments that was not expected to happen and that makes it shocking and exiting at the same time.

Differences between Stanislavski and Brecht Techniques 

They both are world wide known theatre practitioners but their techniques are completely different. According to Stanislavski actor should be acting realistic so the audience should be involved in the story and think of it as it is real. He used methods such as `Magic If`, Objectives, Actions which they are all give psychological approach to the character. The actor needs to believe that everything whats happening is real and be drowned in the life of the role. One of his most known method is `memory recall`. The actor sits down on the chair totally relaxed and uses memories to recall feelings. For example, if the character in a play just made a delicious dinner, the actors needs to remember a time when he/she ate something really nice and tasty, recall the smell, taste, was it hot or cold and how he/she felt about it, and use these feelings to get under the character`s skin.

Brecht theories are completely opposite comparing to Stannislavski. His theories are more about the audience not enjoying the show but thinking and questioning about it. His theories doesn`t require to be realistic, although it should be more dramatic, dreamlike. As mentioned above Brecht wanted to wake the audience up and send a message to the world by using theatre, plays and actors than Stanislavski aimed to make the play more believable.

My character Kattrin

I got to be a dumb daughter of mother courage who is not able to speak. She is considered as the most affected character by war. She is not able to save both her brothers, Eilif and Swiss Cheese, because of her disabilities. She`s been pitying throughout the whole play. Mother Courage keeps highlighting that Kattrin is a whore and is afraid that one day she may be raped and never get married.

Evaluation of Performance

Today`s performance went very well. Everyone prove their ability to act under Brecht`s technique. That means: exaggerated movements, involving audience and making them be a part of the performance even though the audience was quite rude and wasn`t listening. That might be because they are not used to that kind of theatre style and knowing that the audience members were mostly teenagers, felt the situation that they had been asked, they started chatting. I really liked how Klaudian involved the audience by making pauses between sentences and facing the audience members which gave the opinion that he`s waiting for their answer. It is important to mention that everyone on stage were relaxed as the performance wasn`t supposed to be believable. I think that the most shocking thing was that we were allowed to use scripts on stage, it supposed to be weird for audience as they are not used to it.


http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/mothercourage/

http://www.shmoop.com/mother-courage-and-her-children/kattrin.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0l7Yb49x7A

http://www.slideshare.net/Crooked49/bertolt-brecht-epic-theatre

Acting Auditions

Classical Monologue

It was such hard decision to choose the right monologue. I had been thinking a lot about it and after long hours of research I was 100% sure I will go for Shakespeare as there is a saying `if the actor can act Shakespeare he/she can act anything`. And I totally agree with it after experiencing performming Caliban from The Tempest which was a huge challenge for me. It`s not that I did not understand what I was reading at first, the character itself has got completely different manners than all other characters I performed before. So my classic monologue is from Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. Since last year I had an eye on this play. It is very romantic as well as challenging. I have chosen Portia as she was the best typo that I was looking for. Pleasant, inspiring, lovely Portia. A young princess looking for a husband. But everything is not as simple as it looks like. Her dead father made an order for his daughter to marry the man who will be smart enough to answer the question hiding in three different baskets. And after a long, unsuccessful search for the one here he comes, stunning Basanio, ready to conquer Portia`s heart. Portia fells in love with him at first sight. She wishes he will answer all question and they could live happily ever after.

PORTIA

(to BASSANIO) I pray you, tarry. Pause a day or two

Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong

I lose your company. Therefore forbear awhile.

There’s something tells me—but it is not love—

I would not lose you, and you know yourself

Hate counsels not in such a quality.

But lest you should not understand me well—

And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought—

I would detain you here some month or two

Before you venture for me. I could teach you

How to choose right, but I am then forsworn.

So will I never be. So may you miss me.

But if you do, you’ll make me wish a sin,

That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,

They have o'erlooked me and divided me.

One half of me is yours, the other half yours—

Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours,

And so all yours. Oh, these naughty times

Put bars between the owners and their rights!

And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so.

Let Fortune go to hell for it, not I.

The look of innocent Portia.  

I speak too long, but ’tis to peize the time,

To eke it and to draw it out in length,

To stay you from election.

It was really hard to understand the meaning of nearly every line so I googled it and ended up analysing it at NoFearShakespeare.sparknotes.co.uk which was very helpful. Basically, it is translated to a modern language which makes it easy to understand to nowadays people. For instance, no one says `I pray you tarry, pause a day or two,` in modern language it sounds as simple as `Please wait a bit` or `don`t rush`. Nevertheless, Shakespeare is Shakespeare and you cannot change anything about it. He is just fabulous as well as makes you sweat really hard for it which is not a bad thing. I believe, if it challenges it makes you go forward.

Contemporary Monologue 

I admit, I struggled with that one even more than with the classical one. It was really hard to choose the right monologue that I really like. I had started looking for modern monologue since early summer. I orderer a few modern plays from amazon and wasn`t really happy with them. One is called Bunny another Chapel Street. Actually, I expected something slightly different because both stories and main characters are similar. The story type is very narrative and reminds of a girl`s diary where she explain how everything happened not giving the right clue if it`s happening right now or it already happened in the past. That is because past and present simple is mixed together. However, I decided to go for a Chapel Street one. According the language they use the action takes place in Liverpool. The play is about an English teenage girl name Kirsty and the problems she faces. Kirsty is an opposite version of Portia. She is ignorant, rude, impolite, floozy girls. But at the same time she`s quite lost in her feeling and thoughts as a normal teenage girl. Furthermore, Kirsty has indecent fantasies of her best friend Gemma`s dad which is 30 years older. She feels he is mature enough for her compare to these street boys who act like 3 year olds in kinder garden.

Kirsty and her friend are going out and need to get some drinks. So they walk over the one of these small shops near her friend`s house. They don`t have ID on them as they are only 16 so they decide that Kirsty has to go inside because she looks older and so she does.

So Gemma hides behind the corner and I`m gettin sweaty as I walk inside
The shelves all seem really high and the guy behind the counter looks at me.
He`s a little Pakistani Or Uzbekistani or something astani boy
With beady eyes and dirty hair. I freeze.
I don`t know what the fuck to do after about 5 seconds of freezing
So I give him a quick, awkward smile and slink off behind the shelves.
Fuck, I`m nervous. The list on the palm on my hand was blurred. My sweat
Was like blurring my writing. I shit one and just grab a six-pack of Carling
and a half bottle of Jack Daniels. I walked over the counter all-slow,
like proper slow and confident like Deborah Meaden on Dragons` Don
and I put it all on the table. I don`t want to look at him. Fuck it. I think
I`ve got to be confident or I`ll give it away so I look him right in the eye
and he`s not even looking at me he`s just staring. Just staring right

The look of wild Kirsty. 

at my tits.
`How much?` I ask him and I like use a little wink to make him think I`m game,
so it`s more like `How much?` (with an over-exaggerated wink) Yano? He`s just like
`£12.55, anything else?` And I`m like `No.` And we`are away into the ninght with
six-pack of Carling and half a bottle of Jack Daniels!



I researched about Deborah Meaden because I ha dno clue who she is. Deborah is famous as she runs multimillion family holiday company as well as embodies the dragon in the Dragons` Den which is shown on BBC TWO TV program. It is important to note that she is the only female dragon on the show which makes her look even more fascinating. Peter Jones, Theo Pahitis and Meaden are the biggest business investors on the show.

Drama Schools, Pros and cons of university/drama school

PROS

Location

University life can be tough as well as adventurous, however it is definitely a life experience. Many factors of going university may affect your life during the years of studying. One of them is location. It is very important to choose the right location. For example London is very crowded, multi cultural and expensive city to live and study in. The travel in here is very expensive, comparing to other cities. It`s a good thing that being a student you are entitled to get 30% off the normal travelling price, which is a fortune when you are a student as travelling in London is extremely expensive. But it is important not to forget that there are way more opportunities than in other cities in the UK. On the other hand choosing to live in smaller city, such as Brighton, Bristol, Bournemouth, you won`t pay millions for your travel and especially rent. For example, new, or refurnished 1 bed room flats in Bournemouth costs as much as double room in London zones 1-3. And the price reaches around £650-700 per month. For student it is huge money to pay if you are on a part time job.

Discounts

There are special apps where you can apply and get discounts in lots of shops including Top Shop, Curries PC World, Apple an many more. I researched that using UniDays app a student can get even £300 off a new Apple MacBook and up to 40% off any new computer. And it would be a shame not to mention night life and clubs in London. Most students are young people and love going out but going out costs million, especially if you choose to go to the best clubs in London, the entry price normally swings between £15 to £20, however if you show your student card on the door there is a chance to get into the club for as low as £5 or £10. If you like to go out every weekend it saves you from bankrupt. Of course there is always a way to get a discount if you are not a student but most places ask for a membership card which costs even more money than a discount you can get.

More Job Opportunities

According to a resent scientific research of finding a job with and without a university degree, there are more possibilities to find a well paid job with a degree. However, not all the time. It actually depends on gained experience and ambitions. How disposed you are about your desires and dreams. Degree is only a paper that shows you have finished three years of sitting in lectures and listening to professionals but it may be equal to three years of looking for a job in the industry, meeting people, doing workshops or apprenticeships and intern-ships. To sum up, it depends on person`s personality and character, in which environment he/she can learn more.

Unforgettable Life Experience 

Probably that is one of the best reasons to go university. Making friends, meeting new people, campus parties, games, helping each other, libraries full of books, sleepless nights and just being all together with your friends for 3 or 4 years makes it an absolutely amazing memory of your life.

Exchange Program 

There is a chance to travel to any of the world country for free. Sounds likeable, isn`t it? At the beginning of second year in university you can choose whether you want go abroad or not. It is important to look up for universities that offers the same course as yours. For example, if you do drama-acting you can search for universities in Los Angeles, USA and live there for 6 months. The university should cover all studying and living costs but you have to earn money for food and other facilities which may be little bit difficult. But there is nothing impossible.

CONS

Huge Debt 

Normally, a price of studies are very expensive. In the UK it costs £9,000 a year. So the total amount after three years is £27,000. Plus the government released a new law that students who used to get non refundable £4,000 now has to repay everything back to a single penny. Good thing is, that you can start repaying back after graduation and just when you earn more than £21,000. But hey, you went to university to get a well paid job so expect to get a job that salary is even bigger than that.

Long Distance 

If you originated from a small town you are tend to move to a bigger city and study there. That may cause homesickness, feeling lonely, missing family and old friends. However, don`t forget that a lot of people feel the same way so the best option is to gather together and stay strong,

3 Years of Unemployment

Of course some places offer a part time job but mostly it`s just a typical bar, cafe or restaurant job. It is just a way to earn some extra money. However, it is less chance that you will be spotted by casting director or agency during these year as studies require a lot of time and commitment. But not forgetting that actors agencies come to watch the final major project after 3 years of studying and it might be that you will be lucky enough and they will spot you.

Masks as a performance instrument

Greek Theatre 

Greek Theatre mask

The use of masks in Greek theatre was mainly used to worship Dionysus at Athens during various rituals and celebrations. There is not much evidence left how they actually used it, everything what remains are only a few paintings on a vase which shows actors getting ready for satyr play. This is because the masks were made of organic material, for temporary use, which has disintegrated very quick.
Mainly the masks were designed in honour of Dionysus and left near his altar after performances. However, the masks have been used since the times of Aeschylus who lived in 5th century BC and is considered as one of the symbols of traditional Greek theatre.

People who made the masks used to be called skeuopoios. Normally, the masks were size of a helmet which took over the face and head leaving just few holes for eyes and mouth.
 Also there was a small hole to put on a wig if needed. The masks were light weight and usually made of stiffened linen, leather, wood or cork with a wig of human or animal hair.

The main function of masks in Greek theatre was to bring the face closer to the audience due to the large size of Greek theatres. The face emotions on the masks were over exaggerated so the audience could easier what`s going on, especially those people who were seating at the back of a theatre.

Noh Theatre

Believed, before the masks became popular to use in theatre there were only about 60 styles of them. However nowadays there are over 200. The origins of the Noh masks started during the Muromachi period (1392-1573). Before the Muromachi period the masks had stronger religious meaning. Nevertheless, the religious side of it began to fade when the Muromachi period came. People started to think about using the masks in yugen (mysterious beauty), they thought it would be better to hide the ugly part of their faces and to show more beauty of Noh masks.

It is important to note that you cannot actually tell what are the feeling of Noh mask. It looks like it could have different emotions depending on the text that is said. The best would be to say it has a neutral emotion. The technique that is usually used by actors to highligh the emotion is to slightly tilt the mask up or down. There two main expression Teru and Kumoru. When the actor tilts the mask upwards the emotion is called Terasu because it looks like the mask is smiling or even laughing, to sum up it`s all happy, meanwhile if it`s more downwards the emotion is called Kumorasu. With Kumorasu the expression on the mask appears to be sad.

The material meaning of Noh masks is completely different to Greek theatre masks. Noh masks is made of a strong material and can stay nice for ages. It is quite small and does not cover the whole actors face, most of the time some part of jaw or chin pops out. The eye`s holes are very small therefore the performer has a limited vision view.

There are quite few types of Noh masks:

• Okina (Old man masks) 
• Jo (elders masks) 
• Onna-men (woman mask) 
• Otoko-men (man mask) 
• Kishin (demons)
• Onryo (ghosts and spirits) 

Carnival 

As my chosen area of performance masks I decided to do Carnival masks because it is the most beautiful and memorable masks of all. Once I went to a masquerade ball wearing dark blue, sparkly mask it was unforgettable experience. I have always had a passion for carnival masks. If I entered into a shop and there were carnival masks it would have always brought my attention to it.

The origins of carnival masks started in Venice, Italy. Moreover, known as the world`s biggest carnival The Carnival of Venice, where all people dress up like in 18th century and cover their faces with masks. The word carnival itself has a very interesting meaning. Translated from Latin carne + valle means `farewell to meat` which was originated from Roman Catholic festival of Lent. That means, the season of sorrowful absence of fruit, eggs, meat and dairy products. The first mentioning of masks is found in about 13th century of masked-men throwing eggs at ladies. However, the wear of masks are actually started in 18th century. Nowadays, carnival happens to be organized in February.

The use of carnival vary from hiding the face/identity/social status to celebrating the carnival of Venice. It let the wearer act more easily in social situations without giving away their identity where he or she wanted. For instance, hiding the identity could be closely related with criminals, personal stuff or romantic secrets that not everyone should know about.

The Venetian masks revolutioned from Commedia dell`arte as those were are perfect and beautiful way to hide the identity during the carnival. The carnival masks themselves are very beautiful and eye-catching. It is decorated with dominant colours such as silver or gold and has got baroque style in it. They are made of an application of gesso, a white paint mixture, and gold leaf. Most of the times they are hand-made and hand-painted. In addition, masks makers add some feathers or sparkles to make the mask stand out.

Bauta 

There are two main types of masks but over the time people invented more types of carnival masks:

• Bauta. This is one of the first Venetian masks. Features of this mask is very simple it is always white. Agreed, that it should be worn with the black hat. I believe this mask is used in well known West End shows Phantom of the Opera. Also back then, women would be not allowed to go to a theatre without wearing bauta.
  
  
  



Moretta

• Moretta (meaning servant mute lady). Believed, the origins of this mask started in France but it was quickly adopted by Venetians, especially women as it highlighted their ladylike traits. However, it was mainly worn by women attending convents to keep themselves quite as there was a special space to clench their teeth.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Volto. Also known as a larva mask. Translated from Latin means `ghost`. It is a plain, white mask. It is very similar to Bauta but it does not have very sharp features such as square jaw line or no mouth. It is easy to wear and allowed the wearer to drink and eat easily.
  

  

  Volto

• Culmbina. Also known as a traditional Venetian mask. This mask covers only half a face and the story how it was discovered is very fascinating. As mentioned above Venetian masks were taken from Commedia Dell`arte so one famous actress decided that her face was to beautiful
  to be fully covered with a mask so she asked to make a mash that covers only half a face. People fell in love with it instantly and it became popular within days. Most of times it is decorated with silver, gold, feathers and crystals, To make it more attractive people have to options to wear it either tied back with laces or held up to the face by a baton. 

Columbina

Plague Doctor 

• Medico Della Paste (Plague Doctor). This mask has a very strong meaning as ,originally, it was discovered in France in 17th century by physician Charles De Lorme and was special made for plague doctors to protect them from breathing in dangerous diseases. It`s got a quite shocking shape which reminds of long beaked bird. 

Rehearsals for Mother Courage and Her Children

This play is very dramatic and sad. Brecht lived during the war and served for military hospital where he saw more than enough of war cruelty. He started with writing anti-war poems at schools which led him to dropping out school. But it didn`t stop him from writing poems and plays based on his experience of war. 

In the middle standing Mother Courage, next to her sitting her
daughter Kattrin and two sons.

My role Kattrin is a daughter of  the main character Mother Courage which is a strong woman. Mother Courage faced the savage of war and stands for herself and her family (dumb daughter and two sons). She doesn`t want her sons go to the army as she thinks that everyone who serves in the army has bigger chance of death that those who don`t. She protects her daughter from filthy man as for them her daughter looks very innocent and quiet but the truth is she can`t speak. In addition, two world famous actresses, Meryl Streep and Fiona Shaw that starred at National Theatre by the way, has starred as Mother Courage in Mother Courage and Her Children. 

Kattrin was born with disability, she wasn`t able to speak and is slightly dumb. All she does just mumbles strange noises and acts little bit weird. She doesn`t have any lines, however she stays on stage at nearly every scene. But it is important to remember that the life on stage goes on even though I do not have any lines. A feedback from Rob was that I still need to be engaged with my character and listen to others. react to everything that`s happening around me. Also Rob suggested me and Shadey think of what happened before, why Kattrin is not able to speak, why she is dumb. Is it the result of war? 

As a general feedback to us all was remember our favourite comedian and think of his/hers acting styles. My favourite comedian is Jim Carey. I noticed that he exaggerated everything and that`s what it makes so funny. He uses his face expressions to inflate the emotion. however, I am not sure I can adapt his techniques to Kattrin as her personality is very quite and shy. Not forgetting that she is a girl surviving brutality of war. She is afraid of everything that is happening around. But on the other hand her confidence and life experience is grown up during the years of travelling with her family. 

Here is a video of National Theatre cast and Fiona Shaw getting ready for the Mother Courage and Her Children. Starting with the warm up, ending with last minutes before going on stage. 

Ideas for Performing with Masks

Today everyone was writing an evaluation about yesterday`s performance with masks. I didn`t have a chance to perform yesterday as I wasn`t ready for it because of my absence in college due to championship and illness(sinusitis). However, today, me, Ria and Matthew discussed what we could do for our performance with masks, as they neither didn`t perform yesterday. 

We wrote down a long list what we should include in our performance. 

• Sound effects
• Lifts/weight taking
• Very physical 
• Put on/off mask facing the wall, not the audience!!! 
• Do not touch the mask
• Slow motion 
• Props (fan, maybe torch, necklace, chairs)
• Different levels 
• The use of projector for images

I came up with an idea of us creating a time machine and travelling through times. So we are all students sitting in the classroom. Ria`s character comes in late and sits down all messy. She`s very bored so she stands up and goes behind us. She starts to create a time machine. Her movements are over exaggerated so the audience can have an idea she creates something really dangerous. At the same time she puts 3 chairs in a row and the huge clock in the middle. We all sit down, put hands on the clock and start shaking. Once we stop there is a note on the wall (going from projector) `Welcome to roaring 1920s`. We decided that we can use the music from that time and do some dancing or partying as 20s was the times of cakes and ale. We go back to time machine and we are in 40s. We got in full swing of second World War. After firefight we go back to time machine and travel to 80s where bright colours and rock`n`roll took over the world. After some fun time in 80s we are on our way to the future where robots controlling the world. We haven`t decided how we going to finish it but thought of going back to nowadays and just freeze. 

Ria came up with idea of using a giant clock as the symbol of time machine. She also suggested using props that symbolizes different times. For example, tutu skirts symbolizes 80s, fans were used in roaring 20s. 

Matthew suggested that we could use the music as background of each  years.

Final Improvisation

On Thursday it was our final improvisation performance and I think it went very well as everyone was very active and wanted to be a part of games that we were playing. There were 4 groups just to make it easy for everyone to stand up and participate. We started with a game that only two persons can take part in. It was called something like `alphabet game`. Each person had to start a line with new letter, following a, b, c etc.. For example,
A: Actually, I wanted to speak with you..
B: Bro. about what?!
A: Can`t you calm down?
B: Definitely, just say what do you want to talk about
A: Elephants, I want to talk about elephants, I really worry about them... etc..


I really enjoyed playing `Party quirks` as people think of very funny tasks and you have to get under the skin of these tasks in like 5 seconds. My task was `a baby who learns how to walk`. I found it very easily to do as it did not require to speak at all as babies can`t speak. I was just crawling on my fours, trying  to stand up, repeatedly saying `mama, mama!`. In my opinion, this game is very easy and funny, the hardest thing was to hold my laugh because other actors made it really funny. But I tried to focus on my objective of `being a baby` and less listen to what other actors say.


The last game we played was the  `goal keeper`. Ryan volunteered to be a goal keeper. The idea of this game is just throwing ideas at him and he has to go for it for maximum 30 seconds. I jumped into a scene, shouting `get down! get down! Give me the money!` and Ryan accepted it very quickly and got down. I found that doing it very fast my emotions took over my thoughts so I wasn`t thinking what to say next. Everything went like automatically, and the short story had the beginning, climax and conclusion, however it was very short, about 30-40 seconds long.

In my opinion, improvisation helps to improve self confidence as there are no mistakes, failures or bad ideas. Everyone has to accept the idea, and make the other actor look good, don`t throw cheap jokes, that may bully others and just enjoy and go into endless stories.

Violence against women during the war monologue

I know that we had to write and base our story from World Wars but I couldn`t find enough information for my theme. I was thinking about very important fact, rape during the war, which is not mentioned in many resources. So I decided to look up Bosnian War as it has a lot of information about female rape and the lack of women power. (Similar technique were used during World War 2 against Japanese women, but Bosnian War is worse).

The problem of female rape during the war started long time ago. One of the cruelest female rape happened during the Bosnian War, where Serbians wanted to get as much women pregnant as possible, no matter their age, look and marital status. They even didn`t rape those who were already pregnant because they couldn`t have their babies. Basically, they wanted to destroy their lives by raising their own raper child.


 Serbians believed that that`s one of the way to "clean" the country. It was called ethnic cleansing, and it was a part of the genocide program. (Genocide is when one nation tries to wipe out another nation, harm it as much as possible.). About 12 000 to 50 000 women were raped during the war. Mostly women nationality were Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim).

It was violence against women, and women did not have any power against men. Female word against men words was just an empty space. It is hard understandable but using rape was actually a war strategy, carefully planned by military. (Not to mention how many women were killed, because of trying to escape.).





My written monologue, based on real facts from Bosnian War (Mar 1, 1992 - Dec 14, 1995) 


Dear John,

I`m so glad to hear that you are alright. I just can`t describe how much I miss you. I think about you every second of my life and believe that one day you will be holding my hand again, and we will be walking down by the sea side like we used to.

The other day, as usual, I was working at the factor, where we wash officers and lieutenants blazers, and officer Tom came up to me. I though he is going to shout at me why I`m so slow, like the other day, but he was smiling. His creepy smiled covered all his face up to ears. I felt something bad is going to happen. My heart started beating extremely fast, I started nervous but couldn`t hide anywhere. And then it happened... He started touching me... He tried to rape me! Rape me!! I tried to escape but I couldn`t so I slapped him. And then... He got so angry. He throw me on the florr and started beating me... He hit me everywhere: on my cheeks, arms, legs, belly.. Everywhere... I looked around, and I saw Laura looking at me, with her eyes full of sorrow. She looked at me for a second and then looked away... She didn`t want to get in trouble.

I woke up this morning in the hospital. They say everything is going to be alright but I don`t think so. I`m so scared. My life has changed unrecognizable since you left.

Will always love you,

Amber xx